Malleable At The European Will British Discourse On Slavery 1784 1824 And The Image Of Africans

Helmut Meier‘s study of pro- and anti-slavery texts from 1784–1825 focuses on understanding the distinct image of Africans in the British debate on the slave trade and slavery as such. Starting from the premise that, at the threshold from the early to the late modern period, the distinct image of Africans as slaves was instrumental in universalizing a Eurocentric concept of capitalist wage labor both at the colonial centres and margins, Meier argues that, by portraying African slaves as suffering wretches, especially anti-slavery texts created colonial Others in an indistinct zone between inclusion and exclusion from humanity. The discourse on slavery thus constructs African slaves as mimetic Others which could subsequently become the objects of a discourse of colonial reform and ‘betterment’.

Historically Canadians have considered themselves to be more or less free of racial prejudice. Although this conception has been challenged in recent years, it has not been completely dispelled. In Colour-Coded, Constance Backhouse illustrates the tenacious hold that white supremacy had on our legal system in the first half of this century, and underscores the damaging legacy of inequality that continues today. Backhouse presents detailed narratives of six court cases, each giving evidence of blatant racism created and enforced through law. The cases focus on Aboriginal, Inuit, Chinese-Canadian, and African-Canadian individuals, taking us from the criminal prosecution of traditional Aboriginal dance to the trial of members of the 'Ku Klux Klan of Kanada.' From thousands of possibilities, Backhouse has selected studies that constitute central moments in the legal history of race in Canada. Her selection also considers a wide range of legal forums, including administrative rulings by municipal councils, criminal trials before police magistrates, and criminal and civil cases heard by the highest courts in the provinces and by the Supreme Court of Canada. The extensive and detailed documentation presented here leaves no doubt that the Canadian legal system played a dominant role in creating and preserving racial discrimination. A central message of this book is that racism is deeply embedded in Canadian history despite Canada's reputation as a raceless society. Winner of the Joseph Brant Award, presented by the Ontario Historical Society

Critically interrogates of the history and politics of slavery, from classical Greek philosophy to todayWhat makes a slave a slave? What does it mean to think about slavery as a political question? This book examines slavery and freedom as founding narratives of the liberal subject and of modernity. Laura Brace asks what happens when we try to bring slaves back into history, and into the history of political thought in particular. Looking at scholarship on both 'old' and 'new' slavery, the book assesses the work of Aristotle, Locke, Hegel, Kant, Wollstonecraft and Mill, and explores the contemporary concerns of human trafficking and the prison industrial complex to consider the limitations of 'new slavery' discourse.Key Features: Analyses the dominant liberal discourse on slavery, from Aristotle to Nietzsche; Examines the connections between 'old' and 'new' slavery; Explores the role of concepts of power, violence, domination and subordination, issues of economic exploitation and the organization of labour and the influence of race and gender.

This book traces how early Americans imagined what a 'nation' meant during the first fifty years of the country's existence.

This eye-opening book invites careful reflection on how we should respond to colonial and post-colonial wrongs from the perspective of international law, in particular international criminal law. In addition to a dozen case studies, the book offers analyses based on legal concepts such as subjugation, debellatio, continuing crime, and transfer of civilians, as well as on the discourses of Third World Approaches to International Law and transitional justice. It contains a number of practical suggestions for what can be done to enhance a sense of access to international law in connection with colonial wrongs. The book has eighteen chapters organised in five parts, addressing the context of the discussion on colonial wrongs and access to international law, legal notions, Colonial Burma, other former colonial territories, and indigenous populations. You find contributions by Morten Bergsmo, Joshua Castellino, Kevin Crow, Christophe Deprez, Shannon Fyfe, Gregory S. Gordon, Brigid Inder OBE, Wolfgang Kaleck, Asad Kiyani, Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Jacques P. Leider, LING Yan, Christophe Marchand, Hugo van der Merwe, Ryan Mitchell, Annah Moyo, Mutoy Mubiala, Matthias Neuner, Narinder Singh, Gunnar Ekeløve-Slydal, Derek Tonkin, Crépine Uwashema and YANG Ken. In their foreword, the co-editors explain - with reference to lingering consequences of the slave-based economy - why the book is dedicated to "those who will transmute the legacies of colonial wrongs and slavery into a wider, world-embracing solidarity and unity". The book calls for renewed leadership in this area.

How capitalism first promoted fossil fuels with the rise of steam power The more we know about the catastrophic implications of climate change, the more fossil fuels we burn. How did we end up in this mess? In this masterful new history, Andreas Malm claims it all began in Britain with the rise of steam power. But why did manufacturers turn from traditional sources of power, notably water mills, to an engine fired by coal? Contrary to established views, steam offered neither cheaper nor more abundant energy—but rather superior control of subordinate labour. Animated by fossil fuels, capital could concentrate production at the most profitable sites and during the most convenient hours, as it continues to do today. Sweeping from nineteenth-century Manchester to the emissions explosion in China, from the original triumph of coal to the stalled shift to renewables, this study hones in on the burning heart of capital and demonstrates, in unprecedented depth, that turning down the heat will mean a radical overthrow of the current economic order.

Focusing on the development of a single African American community in eastern New Jersey, Hodges examines the experience of slavery and freedom in the rural north. This unique social history addresses many long held assumptions about the experience of slavery and emancipation outside the south. For example, by tracing the process by which whites maintained "a durable architecture of oppression" and a rigid racial hierarchy, it challenges the notions that slavery was milder and that racial boundaries were more permeable in the north. Monmouth County, New Jersey, because of its rich African American heritage and equally well-preserved historical record, provides an outstanding opportunity to study the rural life of an entire community over the course of two centuries. Hodges weaves an intricate pattern of life and death, work and worship, from the earliest settlement to the end of the Civil War.